Does anyone know of a fighting video game maker usable on a home PC?

[JET73L]

It coyuld be as simple as Flash, though 3-D (or even Mortal Kombat style spriting) would be preferred. Sort of like RPGMaker, only for arcade combat games. Are there any of this sort of program available for home use? Or are ighting games just made from the ground up, and nobody bothered making a starter program?

[Venomblood]

3D = No. Especially if you've never made games before. Game Maker is good, but you have to build from scratch. It's still really easy to make games if you catch on to things quick. Flash is also a good choice, but harder to learn and kind of different. I've never heard of a program dedicated to making fighting games though.

[ninja9578]

DarkBasic would be a good place to start. It's fairly simple, but after a while you might want to migrate to C++ and OpenGL.

[Ynot]

There are various graphics rendering engines available OGRE is probably the best known of these These are not "game makers" - such a thing isn't really realistic like "film making" software isn't realistic you produce a film, or you don't you produce a game, or you don't Software can't make one for you You can, however, let software automate some of the donkey work and deal with things at a "higher level"

[ninja9578]

Yeah, you won't find a good game maker, such a thing would be impossible to build. There are things like that out there: GameMaker, FPSCreator, but they are terrible compared to real games with custom engines. Making things general makes the software slow, game software is extremely specialized code. Because things for builders need to be general, they include good programming practices. Things like smart pointers, getters and setters. Game engines don't use any of that, it's fast and very dirty. That's why I recommend Darkbasic to start. It handles the interface with directx for you, it also has a package called dark ai, which will handle things like A* routines and stuff for you.

[Serkat]

Nobody mentioned MUGEN yet? It's incredibly customizable, basically a game with open game engine, and free. It can even be used to make platformers, shooters, puzzle games etc., though it's primarily a fighting engine. Captures the arcade feeling perfectly. Also a huge community cos it's practically the best solution. Since I figure you don't want to create Street Fighter 5 but wanna get down and dirty with creating stages, characters, moves etc., it should be sufficient. Because quite honestly, creating all the art for a game is already plenty of work. Check it out If you're looking to create a game that even only remotely resembles the typical 2D brawler, then this is the way to go since you'll be some 100 times faster than actually coding the game yourself. Other engines are in development as well, for example ShugenDo which will support native online multiplayer, a feature that MUGEN is lacking unfortunately (though there are workarounds) - http://www.sakirsoft.com/cms/index.php . Not available though.

[JET73L]

Thanks, Serkat, that's exactly what I was looking for! And yes, I know that "game making programs" don;t have any more basis in reality than "movie making programs." I just had no idea what to call it without being incredibly unclear about it. (It's just something I want to do for fun, set up an idea and see if it works before I start trying to build it for real)

[slash112]

well i started to learn a c# a while ago, i think its the exact same as c++, and it seemed not too bad, but im not new to programing so i dont know if it is easy for someone unfamiliar to any programming language. are you new to programming completely?

[Ynot]

well i started to learn a c# a while ago, i think its the exact same as c++ no, it's not...

[slash112]

no, it's not... oh right, woops, i saw a bit of c++, and it looked similar so i just assumed...

[Ynot]

probably the biggest difference, is C++ compiles to native code, whereas C# doesn't C# gets compiled to intermediate byte-code the byte-code then needs to be run through MS's CRL virtual machine JIT compiler to execute

[Grod]

Thanks, Serkat, that's exactly what I was looking for! And yes, I know that "game making programs" don;t have any more basis in reality than "movie making programs." I just had no idea what to call it without being incredibly unclear about it. (It's just something I want to do for fun, set up an idea and see if it works before I start trying to build it for real) M.U.G.E.N is sick as balls, but don't go for one of the pre-made games. It's much more satisfying to finish a game that you 'made from scratch'. I'm not saying like make all the characters, stages, and music, but like select the perfect characters, the right screenpack and all your favourite songs and stages. Way more fun to play, too.

[slash112]

probably the biggest difference, is C++ compiles to native code, whereas C# doesn't C# gets compiled to intermediate byte-code the byte-code then needs to be run through MS's CRL virtual machine JIT compiler to execute i meant the language, not the software.

[drewmandan]

One thing you might try is getting a game with an SDK, like any Unreal for example, and using their engine and some modified code to produce a 3d fighting game.

[ninja9578]

All compiled create intermediate code. It makes it much easier to cross compile, it's usually just hidden. The grammer converts the code to a abstract parse tree that is optimized then made into intermediate code (usually assembly) that assembly is optimized and then converted into native code then the linker puts the pieces together The separate parts makes cross compiling easier because they can reused large pieces of it across different endian chips and interrupt calls.

[JET73L]

@Grod: Absolutely right, not much point in "creating" a new game that's just adding together a bunch of pre-made characters in a pre-made scene. No personal attachment to be proud of. @slash: No, I'm not new to programming, I just don;t do it often, at least nothing extensive.